When you say "found homes" for them I'm tempted to ask whether there's some adoption agency out there that matches up geeks and computers.
FWIW, I'd suggest you consider keeping your old gear. You may surprise yourself and discover a need you didn't think you had. Even in a home environment, extra gear could easily be used for a test sytem (new program installations, alternative distributions, major upgrades, etc.), or alternatively be put to use as a file server, backup storage, multi-boot replacement, a firewall, yada yada yada.
In some ways it's analogous to the typical computer sales question "What are you going to use this computer for?" You may not know until you get it.
Interestingly enough, I think that irrespective of how its failure or success is defined, problems at the IRS can be A Good Thing.
Contrast the slow and inefficient IRS to how tax collection functions at the state level. Here in California, for example, they make excellent use of their resources and you can expect better turnaround than you would with the IRS, Practically speaking, this can translate as a next-day visit from a tax official who is going to close your business because you missed a filing due date by a few days.
Sometimes it's better to be yet another name on a piece of paper sitting at the bottom of a pile of papers that no has time to look at. Unless you're name is Tuttle. Or was that Buttle?
Overall, an article worth reading. Two things I found worth noting. First, the "false convenience" metaphor in
"So long as false convenience and poor design are more important to the average user than security and safety then we are going to have problems."
I thought was an excellent way to characterise the arguments often raised when such things as user education, simple point-and-click interfaces, administration costs, etc. are the topics of discussion. Also, when asked,
"
What is your preferred platform-Wintel, Linux, MacOS, or....? "
the response is notably diplomatic:
"It depends on the application need. No one system (or language or database or...) is ideal for every use. I'm a big believer in using the right tools for the right jobs."
Mohammed? Is dat you cousin??? How dey go dey go? Efritin and efribodi dey changing, Mohammed. Mi brodda Peter dat man don cool down in lockup like dey say here. No lie!
Wetin you write good na you we dey look o! mebbe dey people here dey laff na because ee dey like say dis wahala be nudder naija man spammer. But he be my brodda and a-one coder too! Is say too if goment or anybodi say person do bad, and dem come carry am go court, nobodi fit talk say dat person do bad until say dem judge well well so tay mago mago no de, na dat time dem fit talk say di person na really bad person and e do ting we make dem becos of am bring am come court. My two naira.
Bah abeg you be watch yourself and God go dey continue to butter yua bread. Amen!
can tell me whether the custom of using a trouser press (there's one pictured in the article for anyone wonder WTF I'm talking about) is alive and well. Never seen one used except maybe as a set prop on Masterpiece Theatre.
Don't know whether you buy much on eBay, but the "Reserve Not Met" should be an indicator that it's not going to be selling for 650USD. My guess 750 at minimum.
That said, I do think there is a market for "larger" sized PDA/readers. So does NEC come to think of it. Personally I'm waiting for something I can use soley to read reference/technical documentation, maybe something along the lines of those gadgets we saw used on StarTrek episodes.
Last week I mailed off my first ever Nielson diary. Don't know what conspirary was responsible for my being selected, but the fact that I have a full cable subscription that made it seem somehow appropriate at the time.
Three things I found interesting. First, they send you cash! Ten bucks isn't a lot, but there's something really appealing to receiving cash in an envelope. Second, there wasn't enough room in my diary to write all the channels, premium or otherwise, I was receiving. Third, and the most interesting at least to me, was that when I looked over what I had watched that week (which was like most any other week), I saw that with the exception of a smattering of PBS programming, I had watched a single episode of the Sopranos. Great episode if anyone has seen it.
Yesterday someone (from that same conspiracy no doubt) called asking me whether I wanted to participate in an Arbitron (radio programming) survey. They offered only $5 dollars (cash again!) and I agreed. After hanging up the phone, I started thinking about how much radio I listened to, given the fact that while driving, you remain a captive audience and can't read Slashdot or do much else. I came to the conclusion that if I change the times, and replace PBS with NPR, the results will be identical and the diary I mail back will be just as blank.
So yes, I'll agree that "Cable isn't just worth it anymore." Radio never has been. I wonder whether anyone but the "consumer" will recognise it.
Imagine you have 300 secretaries writing memos and letters and filling out expense reports for their bosses. As an office adminstrator, you'd want all those documents to be formatted identically. So how do you pull that off? Macros. The letter/memo-head is another example. Large law firms have for years "generated" their letterhead from within a wordprocessor rather than having it printed (personal stationery still gets professional printed) to save both time and money. The only way to pull off the complex formatting needed is to use macros.
It seems that law enforcement invariably prefers crimes be treated more seriously than they would ordinarily deserve. Property seizures are an excellent example. Buy a joint from that Jamaican dude standing on the corner, or stop to pick up that girl waving at you, you lose your car.
The courts/legislature are also part of this trend. Most traffic offenses, for example, are (quite rightly) treated as misdemeanors. Neglect to pay the fines, or accumulate a few more misdemeanors, what was once a the misdemeanor now becomes a felony which, at least in California, gets counted towards your 3 strikes.
Says here that "Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith said the European Commission's decision amounted to a "compulsory licence" of the firm's intellectual property rights within Europe."
Reminds me of the old Mexican joke about a man who crossed the US/Mexican border every day with a wheel barrow full of dirt. The customs officials asked him each time he crossed whether he had anything to declare. Pointing to the dirt he would reply "Nada" and the guards would let him pass. In time they became used to his crossings that they no longer thought anything about what he was doing.
In light of cultural changes and scientific advances, there are on-going attempts to define or possibly re-define what life is, when it begins and when it ends. My question concerns how do the current legal standards for death apply to computer code and related copyright considerations.
A lot of software (projects on Sourceforge, for example) vary in their degrees of death and dying. Some could be considered "metabolically challenged" in that while they seem dead, they remain at room temperature. Could this meet the legal standard of "dead" or do the courts hold an alternate view? And what of those projects that give the appearance of being alive but, for whatever reason, don't work and have never really worked -- should these written off as dead because they exhibit involuntary movement only, but their existence is due entirely to some form of life-support? Is Internet Explorer, for example, not dead because security updates are still being released?
At the other end of the spectrum are those projects which have gone into permanent stasis. Would these "thermally challenged" a la the neurospension of Ted (Corpsicle) Williams programs be considered dead from a legal standpoint? And would any of this change with respect to the revival of the dead? Are there any legal precedents which could instruct in the case of something that was deemed to have Gone To Meet Its Maker but is suddenly no longer so? For example, if the parrot moves, do we declare it "reanimated" and the rights and benefits are thereto reinstated? Could the beneficiaries each be forced to pay $699 licensing fees to the now ex-descedent, or does the revived person have legal standing bring wrongful death suits against perceived enemies? And what of the Dying but Not Dead category? Does BSD need to litigate or appeal to a higher court to defend itself, or does it remain immune from all legal challenges and attacks until it is declared offically dead?
And where exactly does the Chewbacca defense fit into all of this?
"And as long as there is anything that requires a text file to be edited in linux, Windows will remain king."
Granted in Windows there is a GUI for most everything, but I really don't see distributions like Mandrake lacking in that area. As for the "everything else," how does joe six-pack editing text files on Linux compare with joe six-pack editing the registry in Windows? Noobs don't edit the registry? If the popularity of the numerous "registry tweak" sites is any indication, I'd say they do.
Personally, I'd like to think with a little hand-holding, the joe six-pack using Windows could get into the habit of editing text files with little fuss. Hell, they might even start using the command-line once they realise how powerful it is and doens't require any squinting.
Mailinator is a great idea, but I'm still left wondering why people use any free e-mail service. Maybe I'm missing something, but if a typical ISP gives everyone a handful of free email accounts, why would anyone bother with anther service? Seems to me that setting up a dev_null@myisp.net to have all the registrations and similar nonsense directed to one place is a much simpler approach.
FWIW, you can use Microsoft's qchain utility that purportedly allows you to apply several patches a single reboot. Haven't tried it yet, as my hours are still being spent trying to figure out what patches I need on my systems. Seems that between the Windows update site, the HFNetChk commandline utility, and a handful of patch management programs I've been looking at, I'm getting a variety of results as to what's needed and what's been installed.
If anybody has any favourite suggestions for managing this mess, I'm all ears.
If you can cite an example where Microsoft has tried to make the world a better place or otherwise mitigated their anti-competitive behaviour, I'm sure your request would be considered.
Until then, I see the potshots as a reasonable response to the well-financed FUD campaigns orchestrated by a soul-crushing monopoly intent on destroying life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness everywhere. Or something like that.
Slashdot Mirror
When you say "found homes" for them I'm tempted to ask whether there's some adoption agency out there that matches up geeks and computers.
FWIW, I'd suggest you consider keeping your old gear. You may surprise yourself and discover a need you didn't think you had. Even in a home environment, extra gear could easily be used for a test sytem (new program installations, alternative distributions, major upgrades, etc.), or alternatively be put to use as a file server, backup storage, multi-boot replacement, a firewall, yada yada yada.
In some ways it's analogous to the typical computer sales question "What are you going to use this computer for?" You may not know until you get it.
Interestingly enough, I think that irrespective of how its failure or success is defined, problems at the IRS can be A Good Thing.
Contrast the slow and inefficient IRS to how tax collection functions at the state level. Here in California, for example, they make excellent use of their resources and you can expect better turnaround than you would with the IRS, Practically speaking, this can translate as a next-day visit from a tax official who is going to close your business because you missed a filing due date by a few days.
Sometimes it's better to be yet another name on a piece of paper sitting at the bottom of a pile of papers that no has time to look at. Unless you're name is Tuttle. Or was that Buttle?
Overall, an article worth reading. Two things I found worth noting. First, the "false convenience" metaphor in
I thought was an excellent way to characterise the arguments often raised when such things as user education, simple point-and-click interfaces, administration costs, etc. are the topics of discussion. Also, when asked, the response is notably diplomatic: but then goes on to mention:Mohammed? Is dat you cousin??? How dey go dey go? Efritin and efribodi dey changing, Mohammed. Mi brodda Peter dat man don cool down in lockup like dey say here. No lie!
Wetin you write good na you we dey look o! mebbe dey people here dey laff na because ee dey like say dis wahala be nudder naija man spammer. But he be my brodda and a-one coder too! Is say too if goment or anybodi say person do bad, and dem come carry am go court, nobodi fit talk say dat person do bad until say dem judge well well so tay mago mago no de, na dat time dem fit talk say di person na really bad person and e do ting we make dem becos of am bring am come court. My two naira.
Bah abeg you be watch yourself and God go dey continue to butter yua bread. Amen!
It didn't strike you as odd that one of them was writing all the code on eMacs?
can tell me whether the custom of using a trouser press (there's one pictured in the article for anyone wonder WTF I'm talking about) is alive and well. Never seen one used except maybe as a set prop on Masterpiece Theatre.
You can eat the pigeons (squab, actually) when they arrive.
And yes, just like chiken, but better.
Don't know whether you buy much on eBay, but the "Reserve Not Met" should be an indicator that it's not going to be selling for 650USD. My guess 750 at minimum.
That said, I do think there is a market for "larger" sized PDA/readers. So does NEC come to think of it. Personally I'm waiting for something I can use soley to read reference/technical documentation, maybe something along the lines of those gadgets we saw used on StarTrek episodes.
Last week I mailed off my first ever Nielson diary. Don't know what conspirary was responsible for my being selected, but the fact that I have a full cable subscription that made it seem somehow appropriate at the time.
Three things I found interesting. First, they send you cash! Ten bucks isn't a lot, but there's something really appealing to receiving cash in an envelope. Second, there wasn't enough room in my diary to write all the channels, premium or otherwise, I was receiving. Third, and the most interesting at least to me, was that when I looked over what I had watched that week (which was like most any other week), I saw that with the exception of a smattering of PBS programming, I had watched a single episode of the Sopranos. Great episode if anyone has seen it.
Yesterday someone (from that same conspiracy no doubt) called asking me whether I wanted to participate in an Arbitron (radio programming) survey. They offered only $5 dollars (cash again!) and I agreed. After hanging up the phone, I started thinking about how much radio I listened to, given the fact that while driving, you remain a captive audience and can't read Slashdot or do much else. I came to the conclusion that if I change the times, and replace PBS with NPR, the results will be identical and the diary I mail back will be just as blank.
So yes, I'll agree that "Cable isn't just worth it anymore." Radio never has been. I wonder whether anyone but the "consumer" will recognise it.
There's fewer steps required to install than to read the guide.
"Why can't I say that I don't ever want to see PDFs?"
... Google search.
Maybe "-filetype:pdf" ?
For more info, do a
Imagine you have 300 secretaries writing memos and letters and filling out expense reports for their bosses. As an office adminstrator, you'd want all those documents to be formatted identically. So how do you pull that off? Macros. The letter/memo-head is another example. Large law firms have for years "generated" their letterhead from within a wordprocessor rather than having it printed (personal stationery still gets professional printed) to save both time and money. The only way to pull off the complex formatting needed is to use macros.
It seems that law enforcement invariably prefers crimes be treated more seriously than they would ordinarily deserve. Property seizures are an excellent example. Buy a joint from that Jamaican dude standing on the corner, or stop to pick up that girl waving at you, you lose your car.
The courts/legislature are also part of this trend. Most traffic offenses, for example, are (quite rightly) treated as misdemeanors. Neglect to pay the fines, or accumulate a few more misdemeanors, what was once a the misdemeanor now becomes a felony which, at least in California, gets counted towards your 3 strikes.
So "across the ditch" would be Australian for a "frigging huge expanse of water?"
Still not good enough. I want the cover and lyrics as well.
Says here that "Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith said the European Commission's decision amounted to a "compulsory licence" of the firm's intellectual property rights within Europe."
Ok, enough laughing. Back to the bash-fest.
Doesn't "hid[ing] the useful options" make it *exactly* like Windows?
Reminds me of the old Mexican joke about a man who crossed the US/Mexican border every day with a wheel barrow full of dirt. The customs officials asked him each time he crossed whether he had anything to declare. Pointing to the dirt he would reply "Nada" and the guards would let him pass. In time they became used to his crossings that they no longer thought anything about what he was doing.
Turns out he was smuggling wheel barrows.
Infinitely unreadable, like most everything from David Foster Wallace.
In light of cultural changes and scientific advances, there are on-going attempts to define or possibly re-define what life is, when it begins and when it ends. My question concerns how do the current legal standards for death apply to computer code and related copyright considerations.
A lot of software (projects on Sourceforge, for example) vary in their degrees of death and dying. Some could be considered "metabolically challenged" in that while they seem dead, they remain at room temperature. Could this meet the legal standard of "dead" or do the courts hold an alternate view? And what of those projects that give the appearance of being alive but, for whatever reason, don't work and have never really worked -- should these written off as dead because they exhibit involuntary movement only, but their existence is due entirely to some form of life-support? Is Internet Explorer, for example, not dead because security updates are still being released?
At the other end of the spectrum are those projects which have gone into permanent stasis. Would these "thermally challenged" a la the neurospension of Ted (Corpsicle) Williams programs be considered dead from a legal standpoint? And would any of this change with respect to the revival of the dead? Are there any legal precedents which could instruct in the case of something that was deemed to have Gone To Meet Its Maker but is suddenly no longer so? For example, if the parrot moves, do we declare it "reanimated" and the rights and benefits are thereto reinstated? Could the beneficiaries each be forced to pay $699 licensing fees to the now ex-descedent, or does the revived person have legal standing bring wrongful death suits against perceived enemies? And what of the Dying but Not Dead category? Does BSD need to litigate or appeal to a higher court to defend itself, or does it remain immune from all legal challenges and attacks until it is declared offically dead?
And where exactly does the Chewbacca defense fit into all of this?
Maybe the other 34.5 million lines is related to this?
"And as long as there is anything that requires a text file to be edited in linux, Windows will remain king."
Granted in Windows there is a GUI for most everything, but I really don't see distributions like Mandrake lacking in that area. As for the "everything else," how does joe six-pack editing text files on Linux compare with joe six-pack editing the registry in Windows? Noobs don't edit the registry? If the popularity of the numerous "registry tweak" sites is any indication, I'd say they do.
Personally, I'd like to think with a little hand-holding, the joe six-pack using Windows could get into the habit of editing text files with little fuss. Hell, they might even start using the command-line once they realise how powerful it is and doens't require any squinting.
Mailinator is a great idea, but I'm still left wondering why people use any free e-mail service. Maybe I'm missing something, but if a typical ISP gives everyone a handful of free email accounts, why would anyone bother with anther service? Seems to me that setting up a dev_null@myisp.net to have all the registrations and similar nonsense directed to one place is a much simpler approach.
FWIW, you can use Microsoft's qchain utility that purportedly allows you to apply several patches a single reboot. Haven't tried it yet, as my hours are still being spent trying to figure out what patches I need on my systems. Seems that between the Windows update site, the HFNetChk commandline utility, and a handful of patch management programs I've been looking at, I'm getting a variety of results as to what's needed and what's been installed.
If anybody has any favourite suggestions for managing this mess, I'm all ears.
If you can cite an example where Microsoft has tried to make the world a better place or otherwise mitigated their anti-competitive behaviour, I'm sure your request would be considered.
Until then, I see the potshots as a reasonable response to the well-financed FUD campaigns orchestrated by a soul-crushing monopoly intent on destroying life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness everywhere. Or something like that.